News and Information

June 11, 1999

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection
Service (FSIS) is releasing from hold Parma hams from Italy and Serrano hams from Spain
that had been on hold for potential food safety concerns. Because of the long processing
times (cured more than a year) for these products, they were produced well before the
potential contamination of feed with dioxin in Europe. FSIS continues, as a precautionary
measure, to hold all other poultry and pork products from the European Union (EU) shipped
since January. No beef slaughtered in the EU is imported into this country. FSIS is
continuing to gather information from the EU and member states on these products and will
only release products when sufficient information--including testing--firmly establishes
that products meet U.S. food safety standards. As an additional safeguard for American
consumers, laboratory testing of product shipped to the U.S. from European Union member
states since January will be carried out to verify the safety of these products."